Student midwife from Wyke raises cash for air ambulance which saved her life

A student midwife is raising money for the ‘Angels of the Sky’ who saved her life after her car was hit by a driver running a red light in Bradford.

Hayley Morris was two minutes from her home in Wyke when her car was forced into the side of a lorry after another vehicle smashed into it at the junction of Whitehall Road and Westfield Lane, last July.

The 29-year-old was five weeks from completing her midwifery degree at Huddersfield University. She was left with bleeding on the brain, double-vision and whiplash and had to learn to walk again because of nerve damage to her right side.

She also suffered post traumatic amnesia. “I can’t remember being rescued or the week after it,” she said.

“I remember the drive home, what I was thinking and the shift I did at Dewsbury Hospital. I remember pulling up to the lights and I still think I wasn’t first in the queue.

“I was at a green light and was going across and there was a lorry the other way. Then a guy went straight into me. My car was pushed into the lorry.

“They thought I was going to die, but thank God I didn’t.”

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) took Miss Morris to Leeds General Infirmary, before she was moved to Bradford Royal Infirmary and finally St Luke’s for rehabilitation.

Miss Morris’s eye is improving, but she still has double vision and wears glasses with one lens covered. She learned to walk again six months ago and is hoping to complete her midwifery placements so she can complete her course this year. That will depend on whether she needs surgery to her eye.

The accident meant a planned moved to Cheshire was delayed until October and Miss Morris missed two job interviews which she is confident would have led to a job. Miss Morris, her boyfriend and friends are now planning to walk the Yorkshire Three Peaks in May to raise money for the YAA. They are fundraising under the name Team Mozza and hope to raise “as much money as possible” with this and other events.

“I’m a big believer in angels and they were my angels that day,” Miss Morris said. “When you see these charities, you really don’t know when you’re going to need them. I owe my life to them.”